StoriesOnBoard looks like an incredible product planning tool for agile teams to use when backlogging user stories and features. Even if your team isn’t agile, if you’re on a product and working across teams to address a functional specification, this tool can be immensely helpful. Watch the video to see how robust the features are – just amazing!

I highly recommend this Medium piece by Arthur Bodolec, Design co-founder at feedly, discussing how the Material Design UX workshop at Google helped his feedly team think about their application in some new ways. Incidentally, the foundation of feedly was based in material (cards) already – but it’s later in the piece where Bodolec addresses colors and imagery, that the real innovation creeps out. Subtle but powerful before and after pictures included.

You might have read that, on October 28th, W3C officially recommended HTML5. And you might know that this has something to do with apps and the Web. The question is: Does this concern you?

The answer, at least for citizens of the Internet, is yes: it is worth understanding both what HTML5 is and who controls the W3C. And it is worth knowing a little bit about the mysterious, conflict-driven cultural process whereby HTML5 became a “recommendation.” Billions of humans will use the Web over the next decade, yet not many of those people are in a position to define what is “the Web” and what isn’t. The W3C is in that position. So who is in this cabal? What is it up to? Who writes the checks?

You know about Tinybop, right? They make beautiful apps for kids, and their “Loves” section on the website links to oodles of other wonderful things (books, apps, games, etc.) that you will absolutely love. I don’t have enough time to even try all the wonderful things I’ve found there with my kids.

They have three amazing apps of their own: Plants, Homes, and The Human Body. All three are wonderful, but if you haven’t tried The Human Body yet, do it soon because at the moment, proceeds from the download are going directly to (RED)’s fight against AIDS. You probably can’t do a better job spending $2.99 anywhere else this week. Get to it!

“After all, HTML is responsive by default. If you approach the design by starting small and working your way up with both responsive web design and progressive enhancement, you get mobile for free.” –Mobile Last

“Instead of defining hours per week in contracts with employees, freelancers or virtual workers, you define a commitment level. You don’t care how many hours they work, when and where, or how they mix their private and professional lives. The only thing you care about is how much you can count on the contributions, effort and collaboration of your workers, in the projects to which they have been assigned.” –Pay People for Commitment, Not for Time or Results

Wow. Mahmoud Hashemi and Stephen LaPorte created Listen to Wikipedia, an incredible audio experience on the web that converts the edits people make to Wikipedia pages into beautiful sounds. As people join, edit, save, etc. you hear a collection of bells, strings, and more that end up coming together as though intentionally organized. It’s just beautiful – I’ll put this in my headphones and listen while I work today.